


Lights, Camera, Action/ The Whole World's Watchin

by Frog_that_writes



Series: Audience AU [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Genius Danny Fenton, Genius Fenton Family, a few headcanons scattered in here, but mostly everyone is not a dumbass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23285821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frog_that_writes/pseuds/Frog_that_writes
Summary: The Fenton family had just completed their greatest invention yet. The math was perfect and there was no way it could go wrong. What better way to unveil their new portal than with the whole world watching?
Series: Audience AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1674643
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	1. Family Happiness

"It's not working," Maddie hissed. She turned to the crowd behind them, flashing cameras filling the front row and nearly making it impossible to see the sea of government officials and citizens of Amity Park alike. There was a shaky smile on her face for the sake of the crowd, and Danny could almost hear her thoughts. This had to work.

Jazz stood off to the side with Jack, brows furrowed as she attempted to interpret the screen in front of her. Danny couldn't be sure, this was really the eldest daughter's and their dad's field of expertise, but he could swear that the words on the screen weren't entirely English. He caught a few words of what might have been Latin or French. Maybe that's what was supposed to happen. He was much better at the biology aspect of ectoscience. His mathematical capabilities were reserved for aeronautics alone.

"Just a few more minutes, folks, we're experiencing some unforeseen complications." There was murmuring from the back of the basement lab. They needed to act quick. Smiling to the crowd and hoping he didn't look too nervous, he made his way over to his sister. 

"What's going on?"

"The power source isn't connecting to the portal," she whispered back. "Dad and I can't figure out why, and these readings make no sense. I think there might be something that's drawing all the power but still holding it back. If we can turn that off, we might be able to turn it on."

"Dad?" Danny asked, catching the way his father was suddenly biting his lip and looking impossibly more nervous. 

"I think I know what's drawing the power."

-

His mom wasn't happy, but they had an audience. 

"Jack, you and Jazz need to stay here to monitor the portal. If something goes wrong, you'll be the fastest at interpreting the data and shutting this thing down as soon as possible."

It was their turn to look unhappy, but they nodded. The flashing of the cameras casted a white light on their faces, and despite the fact that he could tell they hated the idea of letting someone else be in danger, they knew it was for the best. 

"I'll go," Maddie said. "Danny, listen carefully, you need to-"

"Mom," he interrupted. 

"We don't have time for this. The reporters are getting antsy and it'll take me too long to learn how to stabilize the portal. I have to go in."

"You can't," his mom said desperately. "Danny, you've been working on this with me, you already know most of it!"

"We both know I'm not great at engineering," he smiled, not exactly sure who he was trying to reassure more. "I'll be fine. You'll be watching out for me, yeah?"

"Of course," she said. "If anything happens..." She trailed off, and Danny knew it was because she really had no advice to give him. 

This had never been a part of the plan. No one was supposed to be in the portal. 

"Be careful," Jazz begged. His parents nodded their agreement.

"Well, we invited all of these people. I think they deserve a show," he said instead of giving them promises he couldn't keep. With one last glance towards the audience, smile stretching across his face and hazmat suit clinging to his body, he made his way into the portal.


	2. Woke up new

Danny was dying. 

There was no way to sugarcoat it, no gentle words to describe the pain that he was in. He was dying and he couldn’t even force his brain to think about the fact that there were people watching. He couldn’t even scream anymore, his throat had seized up and his skin was frying and his eyes were  _ melting _

Then it was over.

And Danny was alive.

He heard the sounds of the crowd, now yelling, cameras still flashing and reporters still calling questions. His vision was blurry, and he had to blink a few times to even make out the shapes of his family in front of the portal. Hiz ears were ringing, but he thought he heard his sister reassuring the crowd that everything was under control. The googles he had donned were giving everything a white tint, which was strange because he could have sworn they were black before he- whatever that was. Must be a trick of the light.

Except, looking down, the colors of his hazmat suit had been switched too. 

“Danny?” His mom called from the end of the portal. Her voice was shaking.

Danny wanted to call back but how could he? His vocal chords had just shattered, his whole body had been burnt to a crisp. How was he alive right now? Was he alive right? The hair sticking to his forehead and falling in the way of his goggles was white and it felt like he was looking through pools of liquid rather than eyes. 

“Danny,” she called again, a bit more desperately this time. He wondered for a moment why she wasn’t running into the portal, the crowd be damned, before he saw the currents of electricity still running through the portal and over his body. She would be electrocuted. 

“Mom,” he croaked. His eyes (were they eyes?) flew open in surprise, but he picked his beaten body up enough to stumble out of the portal. 

It wasn’t supposed to be on. The external power was supposed to be turned off while he closed the circuit that was drawing power. Why his dad thought that they needed a parallel circuit was beyond him, but it was an easy fix. He would close it, step out, they would turn on the power source and the world would be forever changed. He watched them turn it off.

Something else had been powering the portal, and it wasn’t them.

He stumbled on the final step out of the portal, the few inches down to the floor escaping him. As he fell to the ground, he saw two white rings appearing around him, slowly separating and oozing across his skin. It was cool, and he felt like his skin was no longer burnt as the rings passed. The hair in his eyes changed back to black, his eyes suddenly felt more more solid, and his hazmat suit was once more primarily white. 

He still felt like he got electrocuted. Probably because he had. 

"Danny." His mom was beginning to sound like a broken record now. He looked up from his spot on the floor and saw the look in her eyes- fear, horror, confusion- and attempted to make sense of what was happening, fighting with a foggy mind. Could his brain have melted? It certainly felt like his eyes did, but he could still see, and he couldn't quite remember how affected internal organs could be by electrocution. 

What was he talking about? He wasn't dead, so his organs were all fine. Right?

"The portal- something is powering it besides us," he said. Her eyes flew open, but she nodded. Danny was alive, obviously, and she had to compartmentalize. These people had come to watch history be made, not to see her fuss over her son. 

She enhanced a glance with Jack, who looked apprehensive but walked over to the control panel anyways. Jazz, still attempting to run crowd control, looked horrified as she watched him pull the final lever to open the very back of the portal. 

There was a sea of green, intoxicating and wonderful, and Danny felt himself drawn to it. Shaking his head, he returned his attention to his mother.

"What happened, Danny?"

"The portal was being powered, the electricity was already flowing through it when I closed the circuit. I… got a nasty shock, that's all."

"There was enough energy in that thing to give you more than a shock, Danny, you-" her eyes filled with tears "-I don't know how you're still alive. I-  _ are  _ you still alive?"

"Mom, what do you mean?" He laughed but it sounded panicked. "Of course I'm still alive!" His voice was shaking now, and he knew he didn't believe his own words. 

"Danny, when you first walked out you looked-" she hesitated "-different _." _

"Trick of the light," he insisted. "Look mom." He grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest, where the steady thumping of his heart could be clearly felt, along with the rise and fall of his slightly panicked breath. "I'm still alive, okay?"

She bit her lip. "Maybe-"

"Mom," he begged. "Please, we can run tests later. For now, get up there and talk about the portal. This is your life's work."

It was a selfish request. Sure, he wanted his mom to bask in the glory of the apologies of those who had never taken their family seriously, but he also didn't want to spare another second of thought over his mortality. He wished his friends were here. 

But Tucker and Sam weren't trained enough to be on this side of the lab and they didn't work for any newspapers or government agencies to be afforded the privilege to stand on the other. He was on his own.

The reporters had questions for him, because of course they did. 

_ "Why did you have to go inside the portal?" _

Unforeseen complications. Nothing to worry about, just a last minute necessary adjustment. 

_ Smile. Your whole body aches. Smile, it feels like your heartbeat has an echo.  _

_ "You sounded like you were in pain. Did something go wrong?" _

No, nothing like that. I was well protected and just got a little startled by the electricity kicking in. What you heard beyond that may have been the screams of ghosts on the other side of the portal. Who knows?

_ Smile, your throat aches and you know they heard you screaming. But you were well protected. How did the current run through your rubber suit and why are you still breathing? _

_ "Why did you look different when you came out of the portal?" _

The lights combined with what may have been some minor ecto-shock. Not a very well researched phenomenon. You should read my parents paper on the subject. My older sister Jazz here wrote a follow up piece discussing the theoretical long term mental effects. 

_ Smile, why did you change? Why did you change back? Are you alive or a ghost or something else even more horrid? _

Eventually, the questions morphed more into curiosity of his role in his family. The youngest child who already had a few papers published in the field of ectoscience. The reporters especially had a field day when he revealed he attempted to learn as many languages as possible, especially dead tongues, to communicate with any ghosts they may meet. His parents had always considered it somewhat of a waste of time, thinking that any ghosts they met would be unable to partake in a civil discussion, but Danny liked the idea of having a plan B in case they encountered a ghost they couldn't out brute. Besides, if ghosts were just dead people, at least some of them had to be friendly, right? Not that he would ever say that while his parents were in ear shot. 

The portal. behind them was still powered up, and Danny felt like it was a sirens call behind him. It was singing to him, asking him to come through. He was dead. He wasn't. 

It must have looked cool, the green glow behind them, though Danny thought that it was probably ruining a lot of the photographers' shots. He vaguely remembered Sam saying something about how the light source should never be behind your subject in a portrait. He would have to ask her later. 

But that when he realized with donning horror that some of those cameras weren't clicking with the sounds of a shutter indicating it was snapping photos. Some of them were still except for the blinking red lights indicating a video. He was praying that they had only started recording during the interview. Whatever had happened before, when shock had bleached his hair and his body had  _ burnt _ \- whatever had happened, he wasn't sure he wanted it getting out. 

Eventually the interview ended. The reporters and the respected members of the scientific community filed out and the family was once more alone.

It was time to face the music. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm completely flying by the seat of my pants for this fic and I honestly never dreamed I would write anything like it. I feel like I'm definitely being too vague describing some stuff because I have literally 0% of this fleshed out. I'll figure it out.  
> Side note: this might end up becoming tucker/sam/danny because I'm a sucker for it so if y'all hate that you may want to get out now lmao

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all enjoyed this!! I may continue sometime but I don't 100% know if I will. I may post stuff about it on my tumblr @an-anxious-gay-mess  
> I might use the tag "audience au" but that's kind of dumb so I'll figure it out lmao  
> Please leave a comment/kudo if you enjoyed!! Love you all, hope you're staying safe!


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